AMA Queensland President Dr Nick Yim spoke to ABC Sunshine Coast about the ongoing challenge of keeping fluoride in the drinking water supplies of local Queensland councils.
TIM WONG-SEE: Gympie Council got a lot of flack recently when it voted to stop adding fluoride to the town’s water supply. It may have been following some of our coverage to do with this story, but the Mayor Glenn Hartwig, when he spoke to us, his point was it should never have been the council’s job to add it in the first place. Here’s what he told us.
GLENN HARTWIG: This is a state issue and it’s really something that if the state want to mandate it, the state want to do it, then they should step up and make that decision and then pay for the ongoing costs associated with it rather than just do a pass out to local government and let every local government in the entire state have a different perspective.
TIM WONG-SEE: Now, it has been that way since Campbell Newman’s government made it a council responsibility from the state back in 2012. It can be a controversial topic, fluoride, some are for, some against, and changing attitudes, there are alternatives out there these days of course but lots of information and Council by design, they’re a body of lay people making these decisions so is it a fair point that Glenn Hartwig makes there? Of course their decisions are informed by the experts, they take advice like people at state government level do as well, to decide on issues around public health. But should it be given back to the states? Now, Queensland’s health minister is Tim Nicholls. He hasn’t been available to come on this programme to address this question, but he happened to be in Maroochydore yesterday, so ABC Sunshine Coast reporters took the opportunity to ask. Here’s what he said.
TIM NICHOLLS: We are strong believers that local authorities are best placed to represent their local communities whether that is in respect to planning decisions that they make as the appropriate planning authority and in relation to fluoride, that’s a decision for local authorities to make a decision on. Queensland Health, of course, provides information in respect to the benefits of fluoride and what fluoride means for their populations. This has been the case now for over a decade, and it is entirely up to councils to be answerable to their communities for the decisions that they make in respect to fluoridation of of water.
REPORTER: But you’ve only got 17 councils out of 77 in Queensland that fluoridate their water, against your advice or your department’s advice. Is that a concern?
TIM NICHOLLS: Well, that is a matter for those councils. Those councils respond to their communities. Their communities are able to go and speak to their councillors and their decision makers to make their views known in respect to that.
TIM WONG-SEE: That’s the Health Minister, Tim Nicholls, speaking in Maroochydore yesterday. Dr Nick Yim is the President of the Australian Medical Association Queensland for his take on this he joins us this morning. Thanks for your time, Nick.
DR NICK YIM: Good morning.
TIM WONG-SEE: What’s your take on the Minister’s comments that we heard there?
DR NICK YIM: It’s quite concerning at the moment. In Queensland, we’re quite a unique state where the fluoride issue has been bounced around between local council, the state government, and now in this unfortunate situation where a large proportion of the state is missing out on fluoridated water.
TIM WONG-SEE: Now take us back so to a time in 2012 when you talk about this bouncing around. What was some of the discussion and rationale why the councils were given that power, Nick?
DR NICK YIM: We know that previously the Labor government did implement mandatory fluoridation for the state’s water and then later when the LNP government came into power they removed fluoridation and put it into the council’s decision-making. What we’re seeing now from a healthcare perspective unfortunately those regions without fluoridated water the children are having poorer conditions compared to the counterparts with fluoridated water.
TIM WONG-SEE: Going back I know it’s quite a while as the Minister said over a decade here Nick, but it was it because that councils are seen as this government that’s closest to the people can go to local councillors with concerns or opinions and so that’s why they were given the responsibility because of how divisive and controversial the issue of fluoride was becoming, hence the need to give it to a council level who’s closer to the people?
DR NICK YIM: Those were the arguments and some other arguments that some councillors, the state government made previously, was the fact that local council is responsible for the water supply as well. From an AMA Queensland perspective, regardless who the decision maker is they must be making decisions based on science and the evidence and it’s looking at the population as a whole. We know that council make decisions on parks, and many of those things are also public health issues as well from an exercise perspective. Likewise, we know the state government looks after the hospitals. So there’s a big overlap between local council and state government, and they must be making decisions for the best interests of the people.
TIM WONG-SEE: You’re from the Australian Medical Association, so you’re not specific to dentistry here, for example, but we look at things like measles alerts or the COVID response. Council didn’t run those responses, but they do now and have for a while decided on this particular part of public health to do with fluoride. Why do you think it is that they’ve been given this one?
DR NICK YIM: That’s really hard to say. I think the Minister, Tim Nicholls, probably answered that appropriately. It’s probably this bouncing around of the, I guess, political football as we might say, and it is quite a divisive topic, and that is fed by, unfortunately, misinformation among social media. The evidence is clear. Fluoridation is one of the best medical, I guess, technologies of this current lifetime where it has reduced significant amount of dental decay in the community, especially in the paediatric population. We’ve seen the growing divide now between, say, metropolitan areas of Brisbane versus the regions now, which is really unfortunate.
TIM WONG-SEE: Nick, I appreciate your time. Thanks for coming on.
DR NICK YIM: Really appreciate it. Thank you.
Original article online at: https://amaq.com.au/Web/News/News_articles/2025-News/Gympie_fluoride_political_football.aspx